It was an excellent idea to compile a two-disc set of Mogens Wöldike’s complete
Danish recordings of the music of Haydn. The booklet proclaims ‘Haydn Symphonies’
but whilst that’s a convenient title, the two discs also contain the D major
Cello Concerto and the pithy German Dances, of which we hear numbers 1-6.
The symphonies are numbers 43, 44, 48, 50, 61 and 91. It’s also important
to note the geographical qualifier. This Danacord double – a handy slimline,
thankfully – does not include the recordings that the conductor made in Vienna
where he taped a slew with the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, that hard-worked
band, at around the same time. So if you’re looking for those excellent recordings
of Nos. 101 and 103 and their companions, for example, you’ll have to look
elsewhere.

What we do have are the Danish Radio Chamber Orchestra performances. The band
occasionally travelled phonographically as the ‘Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra’
but though the new name implies a bigger body of players, it sounds recognisably
the same chamber ensemble. The recording location remained the same; the Large
Concert Hall of the Radio House, Copenhagen. The recording companies, however,
varied between the Haydn Society (43, 50, 61), HMV (91—made on 78s—and the
Cello Concerto and Dances), and Decca (44, 48).

Wöldike (1897-1988) was a stylish, alert and lively Haydn conductor. Symphony
No.48 is well-scaled with crisp brass playing, and the pomposo characterisation
of the Menuetto well attended to. Accents are taut, but not overdone,
and the music is always led onwards with an exemplary sense of direction.
It was released on LP with No.44, a sterner and more ambiguous work. Fine
horn playing and alert lyricism run through this recording, but Wöldike captures
without question the provisional quality of the symphonic victory, its hesitancies
and tentative nature. Neither of these recordings has been re-released since
1953.

Earlier the conductor had turned to the fledgling Haydn Society to record
No. 50 which he coupled with No.43. The chamber forces here were 6-6-4-2-1.
Again, these are first class performances, with flowingly taken slow movements,
fine wind pointing — try the oboe in the Menuetto of No.50 — and bassoon
doubling the bass line. There is also the question of the special ‘Haydn Society’
horns — instruments in high C, which were not to reappear in the series, unfortunately.
Earlier still, in 1949, HMV had recorded the conductor and orchestra in Symphony
No. 91 which, together with the German Dances, was issued on three 78s. Presumably
because of timing limitations, repeats - unusually for the conductor - were
not taken, but the phrasing is extremely personable, not least the bassoon
and cellos, with motion guaranteed, unfurling a sure sense of dancing gait
in the Menuetto. Symphony No.61 is engaging, once again, though at
his tempo, the caesura at 5:02 in the opening movement does sound a touch
laboured.

The Cello Concerto’s tempo is probably the cellist’s as it’s notably slower
performance than the symphonies — indeed occasionally sluggish. Still, the
obverse is the measured and loving phrasing applied by the young Erling Blöndal
Bengtsson. There is real pathos in the slow movement, albeit overall the soloist
is prone to retard the passagework too much.

Otherwise, this splendidly annotated set deserves a warm welcome. Transfers
are uniformly good, and the performances enshrine music-making of a positive
and keen-eared classicist.